


What if Jurassic Park was a film made in the 1970s?

by classicrockfan



Category: Jurassic Park - All Media Types, Jurassic Park Original Trilogy (Movies), Jurassic World Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1970s, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:48:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23963359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/classicrockfan/pseuds/classicrockfan
Summary: One-Shot: This short story takes place in an alternate universe where the beloved 1993 movie Jurassic Park was just a remake of a film made 20 years prior in the 1970s.This short story quickly sums up the trials and tribulations that went into making a beloved cult classic.
Kudos: 2





	What if Jurassic Park was a film made in the 1970s?

Cast

Charlton Heston as Alan Grant

Faye Dunaway as Dr Ellie Sattler

Gene Hackman as Dr Ian Maloclm

Max Von Sydow as John Hammond

Mike Lookinland as Tim Murphy

Eve Plumb as Lex Murphy

Ned Beaty as Dennis Nedry

Gene Wilder as Donald Gennaro

Richard Roundtree as Ray Arnold

Behind The Scenes

In late 1969, Michael Chrichton wrote a novel called Jurassic Park which focussed on a theme park with genetically cloned dinosaurs. On November 5 1971, shortly after making The French Connection, William Friedkin read the novel and approached Chrichton about making a film of it. Chrichton agreed, and together they planned to collaborate on the script for the film.

They pitched it to Paramount Pictures, who agreed to distribute the film. However, shortly before Principal Photography began, things started to go horribly wrong...

Firstly, Paramount interfered with the casting on numerous occasions. Chrichton wanted Robert Reed to play Alan Grant, but after The Poseidon Adventure came out, the studio decided that the film should rip off Poseidon, and they wanted an all-star cast. So they insisted that Friedkin cast Charlton Heston instead. They also managed lop over Gene Hackman.

Friedkin wanted Linda Blair (who was starring in his latest film; The Exorcist) to play the part of Lex Murphy, but Paramount had other ideas. Instead, they were forced to cast Mike Lookinland and Eve Plumb from their cash grab TV series; The Brady Bunch.

But nonetheless, filming took place between April-July 1973, and it was pretty smooth with the cast members barely developing any serious injuries,

Jurassic Park was released in October 1973 to widespread critical acclaim, praising the performances of Hackman and Sydow. However, Michael hated the finished product and disowned the film completely for a few reasons

1\. The castings of Charlton Heston and Gene Hackman as Alan Grant and Ian Malcolm, as he wanted Robert Reed for the former, and Jason Miller for the latter.

2\. He hated the ending which he considered to be far too bleak and pretentious

So 20 years after the film came out, in 1993, Chrichton worked with Steven Spielberg to do a remake of Jurassic Park starring Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum, which most people remember far more than the darker, and introspective original movie.

Above: The cast of the 1993 remake which many people are divided about. Some prefer the darker original 1973 film, while others love the 1993 version's escapist themes.

Plot

In a stereotypical dystopian 1970s future, in the year 1989, series of strange animal attacks occur in Costa Rica and on the nearby fictional island of Isla Nublar, the story's main setting, one of which is a worker severely injured on a construction project on Isla Nublar, whose employers refuse to disclose any information about. One of the species behind the attacks is eventually identified as a Procompsognathus.

Meanwhile, Alan Grant ([Charlton Heston](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlton_Heston)) is a palaeontologist whose fiance, Dr Ellie Sattler ([Faye Dunaway](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faye_Dunaway)) is trying desperately to convince him to have kids with her, but to no avail. The pair is contacted to confirm the identification of the compys, but are abruptly whisked away by billionaire John Hammond ([Max von Sydow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_von_Sydow)) — founder and chief executive officer of International Genetic Technologies, or InGen — for a weekend visit to a "biological preserve" he has established on Isla Nublar.

Upon arrival, the preserve is revealed to be Jurassic Park, a theme park showcasing cloned dinosaurs. The animals have been recreated using damaged dinosaur DNA found in blood inside of gnats, ticks, and mosquitoes fossilized and preserved in amber. Gaps in the genetic code have been filled in with "compatible" reptilian, avian or amphibian DNA. To control the population, all specimens on the island are lysine-deficient and X-Ray sterilized females. Hammond proudly touts InGen's advances in genetic engineering and shows his guests through the island's vast array of automated systems.

Recent incidents in the park have frightened Hammond's investors. To calm them, Hammond uses Grant and Sattler as fresh consultants. They stand in counterbalance to a famous unorthodox Catholic Preist and chaos theorist, Ian Malcolm ([Gene Hackman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Hackman)), and a lawyer representing the investors, Donald Gennaro ([Gene Wilder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Wilder)), who are pessimistic about the park's prospects. Malcolm, having been consulted before the park's creation, is especially emphatic in his prediction that the park will collapse, as it is an unsustainable simple structure bluntly forced upon a complex system with too many unpredictable variables, such as an uncontrollable population, attempting to contain animals with no real equivalent to extant animals with no predictable behaviour patterns, and an untested computer system that continually fails to monitor and feed the population.

In order to distract the others from Malcolm's scary predictions, Hammond brings over his 2 grandchildren from Utah, Lex and Tim Murphy. Lex ([Eve Plumb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eve_Plumb)) is a pothead obsessed with Grateful Dead shows, getting back at her high school rival Marcia (Brady Bunch reference), and likes to do computing, while her younger brother Tim ([Mike Lookinland)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Lookinland) just likes dinosaurs and struggles to get Grant's attention. In the middle of the tour, Grant finds a velociraptor egg, confirming Malcolm's assumption that the dinosaurs have been breeding against the geneticist's design.

Meanwhile, the chief of Jurassic Park's programming software Dennis Nedry ([Ned Beatty)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Beatty) attempts to steal dinosaur embryos for an agent from Ingen's rival; Biosyn, Lewis Dodgson ([Harrison Ford](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Ford)). By activating a backdoor he wrote into the park's computer system, Nedry shuts down its security systems and steals frozen embryos for the park's fifteen different species in order to smuggle them to a contact waiting at an auxiliary dock at the eastern end of the park. However, his car crashes and he ends up getting killed by a dilophosaurus.

With no power, the electric fences stop working and all of the dinosaurs break loose. The Tyrannosaurus Rex attacks the guests on the tour with a younger T-Rex killing Gennaro. Alan Grant and the children then become lost in the park. Malcolm becomes injured in the attack but is saved by Ellie and the park's game warden; Robert Muldoon ([Michael Caine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Caine)). Malcolm spends the rest of the movie dying from his injuries while trying to help the others survive and making lectures induced by morphine spiked with Acid.

The Park's engineer, Ray Arnold ([Richard Roundtree](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Roundtree)) along with Muldoon and Hammond struggle to return the power to the park. They manage to get back the power temporarily by starting and restarting the system.

Meanwhile, Ellie manages to convince Hammond that his Jurassic Park project failed while eating melted ice cream. When trying to restore the park, they don't realize that the system has been running on auxiliary power since the restart; this power soon runs out, shutting the park again. Both Muldoon and Arnold are killed by velociraptors. 

Meanwhile, Grant and the kids struggle to make their way back to the visitor's centre, feeding brachiosauruses and evading a herd of Gallimimus. The trio soon learns that the raptors were on board the island's supply ship. Whilst Muldoon and Arnold restart the power, Grant and the 2 kids are climbing over the electric fences. However, once the power restarts, Tim ends up electrocuted. Alan revives him with CPR, but Tim wakes up with Amnesia (although he still retains his knowledge of dinosaurs inexplicably).

After the three return to the visitor's centre, they are contacted by the others, who instruct Grant to switch on the park's generators. Lex is then able to reactivate the park's main power, allowing them to force the supply ship to return.

Grant decides to inspect the situation first before destroying the island. He and Ellie then set off to find the raptor nests, while Hammond watches in an underground bunker as Malcolm dies from his injuries, sobbing whilst realizing his failure to grasp the situation at hand.

With regard to the dinosaurs' breeding, it eventually transpires that using frog DNA to fill gaps in the dinosaurs' genetic code enabled a measure of dichogamy, in which some of the female animals changed into males in response to the same-sex environment. The computer tally failed to include newborn animals, having been programmed to stop counting once the assumed correct total number of animals had been found.

Back at the visitor's centre, Tim and Lex are stalked by velociraptors in the kitchen before they are reunited with Grant and Ellie who manage to tell Hammond to send for help. Upon returning though, the 4 are attacked by raptors. Grant and Ellie are killed but not before Grant tells Ellie that he's ready to have kids with her. Lex manages to come out unscathed, but Tim is wounded and falls into a coma. The pair reunite with Hammond who drives them to a waiting helicopter which gets them off the island. As the helicopter leaves, The Costa Rican Airforce tear down the island with Napalm.

Hammond watches from a window and collapses, the victim of an apparent heart attack.

**Author's Note:**

> So this basically what would've happened in my opinion if Jurassic Park was made in the 1970s and the 1993 film was just a remake.
> 
> What do you guys think?


End file.
